A Hiring at Texas Is a Signal of Progress and Fairness

Charlie Strong, the former coach at Louisville, giving the Hook ’em Horns sign during a news conference in which he was introduced as the coach at Texas.

Eric Gay / Associated Press

January 6, 2014

On College Football

By HARVEY ARATON

There were no tears in Texas, in contrast with four years ago when the impact of an overdue appointment was too much even for a man with the commanding name of Charlie Strong.

Julie Hermann, second-in-charge at the University of Louisville’s athletic department in December 2009, recalled how the new head football coach’s voice faltered when he was asked, “Did you ever think this day would come?” How his eyes glazed over. How his audience welled up with him.

“He broke down and said no, he really didn’t,” said Hermann, now the athletic director at Rutgers. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the room.”

Strong, who was introduced Monday as the new coach at Texas, was 49 then. It didn’t make him old, just an oddity as a first-time head coach given the résumé he had compiled as a top defensive coordinator at Florida and the quality of the employer references he could present.

On the short list were Steve Spurrier, Lou Holtz and Urban Meyer, who, while four years younger than Strong, was already the holder of three head-coaching positions and two national titles.

For sure, an African-American candidate like Strong had to be stronger because he surely couldn’t go faster, much less higher. But patience is a virtue and acceptance can still be victorious, as evidenced by Strong’s response to a question Monday about perhaps not being Texas’ first choice to replace Mack Brown.

“Whatever choice I was, I’m the head football coach,” he said.

Progress is not always best measured by the numbers, which we know have never been much for the N.C.A.A. to brag about in regard to football prospects for minority coaches. The 2013 season began with 13 black coaches out of 120 in the Football Bowl Subdivision, up from the meager handful when Strong was a coordinator.

Bean-counting, however, wasn’t the story Monday in Austin. This was: After four years of winning at Louisville (37-15), Strong had become, according to Hermann, “the belle of the ball.”

He had the job many have called the premier position in America. “And that gets quantified because they have the biggest budget and a state where football is the most loved thing,” Hermann said.

Five years ago, before Strong coordinated Meyer’s title-winning defense in the 2008 season’s B.C.S. championship game, a couple of us who were familiar with Strong’s credentials cornered him and asked what was taking him so long to reach the next level.

Without blinking, or smirking, he said, “Y’all know the answer.” He didn’t elaborate on what might have been an even more sinister situation than the usual machinations of the old-boy network.

At the outset of Monday’s news conference, Strong sat between the university’s president, Bill Powers, and athletic director, Steve Patterson. In his opening remarks, Powers referred to Strong’s wife, Victoria, and their three children, saying, “What a beautiful family that you have.”

Strong being interviewed by Chris Fowler after Louisville’s victory over Florida in the Sugar Bowl last January.

Matthew Stockman / Getty Images

Left unaddressed for good reason was Strong’s onetime belief that his career ceiling might be lower because his marriage was interracial. In a 2001 interview with The State newspaper of Columbia, S.C., he said, “I had always felt it would be a hindrance,” and in that 2008 interview he said he still felt that way.

But as Hermann — a rare female athletic director — said: “We want college athletics to be a shining light, but it really mirrors the world. Barriers are tumbling, though.”

Although they never seem to fall fast enough, there are currently more African-American coaches — David Shaw at Stanford and James Franklin at Vanderbilt, among others — in position to succeed and climb than ever.

When Strong was finally given a chance by Tom Jurich, Louisville’s athletic director, Hermann said: “He had us at hello. He is a superb person. And as much as I hate to see him leave Louisville, he’s ready for this.”

Ready, as Strong said, to take on expectations — demands, actually — that he compete for and eventually win a national title. Ready for a place where the color of money — a reported $25 million over five years for him — will soon take precedence over most talk of black and white.

Strong said he viewed himself less as a minority crusader, more as a mainstream coach. But he admitted to heeding the advice of Floyd Keith, the former executive director of the Black Coaches and Administrators.

“He said, ‘Remember, you are representing all those who did not get the chance you are getting,’ ” Strong said.

In a telephone interview from Indianapolis, where Keith consults for the N.C.A.A., he called Strong’s promotion potentially game-changing progress.

“Like when Tyrone Willingham was hired at Notre Dame, even bigger, because this is a program that can win a national championship,” he said.

Leaving Louisville and Jurich was painful, Strong admitted. There is seldom a clean getaway. Andrew Johnson, a Cardinals defensive back, wrote of Strong (and later deleted) on Twitter, “He ain’t real.” Lorenzo Mauldin, a defensive end, wrote that Strong had promised he “wasn’t going anywhere.”

They all have their reasons. Bill O’Brien left behind a platoon of young men at Penn State — who sacrificed to sign with him — because he wanted a pro job. No crime there but no honor either. In addition to the payday, Strong can at least point to a higher calling.

“For a job like this, you have an obligation to accept the challenge,” Keith said, referring to the possibility of Strong’s becoming the first black coach to go all the way. “Eventually we’ll get to the point where this is not an issue anymore, the way it is with basketball coaches. We’re not there yet. What’s missing is a national championship.”

Maybe that’s why emotions did not spill over for Strong on Monday as they did four years ago. Louisville was a coronation after the long climb. His new home is a potential stairway to heaven. No tears of joy in Texas until you get to the top.